Friday, April 15, 2016

Overtaxed

So very, very happy to see Friday. This has been a week. While my boss was at a conference out of state, the information for the board of trustees meeting later this month were due. My part had been done since the week before, but he had forgotten to do his part.

Guess who got to drop everything Monday to write the summary?

Actually, it was more taking the summary that was presented to a smaller committee of the BOT in February, updating page numbers and adding a couple of points, but still... Not usually my circus, nor my monkeys.

Trust tax returns, however, are generally my barrel o' poo-flinging primates. Usually, the treasury services director prepares the K-1s and I do the rest of the return.

His assistant told me on April 1st the returns were "done". She indicated that they were fully, completely done, ready for a review. Yay! I could start reviewing them the following Monday. Only when Monday rolled around, he hadn't given me the files (housed only on his particular computer) that have the completed returns.

Oh yeah - he was on vacation last week.

Grr.

Anyway, as of yesterday, the returns are reviewed, signed and mailed. I have no clue why he completely prepared them, except for the fact that once you've entered the information needed to issue the K-1, the return is eighty percent finished.

I had hoped that was the end of my tax-related activities, at least for a week or so (after the BOT reviews and "accepts" the university's 990 (a procedure not technically required by the IRS, even though the IRS asks on the return itself whether or not the governing body has reviewed and approved it), I can actually file it).

No such luck.

A J-1 researcher called me yesterday in a panic about filing her personal taxes. We do not give personal tax advice, but with nonresident aliens, I like to at least give them a list of resources.

Unfortunately, it turns out that she never completed the necessary paperwork to allow Payroll to give her the tax break allowed for Turkish J-1s working in the U.S. That meant she didn't have access to the software we use, whose manufacturer will do an NRA tax return for a reasonable fee. The software company is an expert in NRA taxes - so much better to have them prepare the return than a local firm.

She's coming in this morning to complete the paperwork required for 2016, now having access to the software system. Hopefully, she can still do her 2015 return through their service.

People can complain about our dysfunctional tax system all they want: it keeps me employed.

On that note, I should get to some of the other stuff that was put aside in favor of tax returns.

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ginosko

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